I have a secret

‘I have a secret’ are four of the most intriguing, and possibly the most infuriating, words. They generate interest, inquisitiveness, frustration and even anxiety. We all like to know what is being kept hidden. The item of furniture, known in French as the secretaire à abattant shares the same linguistic root as the word ‘secret’ which alludes to one of its functions in keeping things private.

To add to the curiosity, the fall-front secretaire also has many names. It is often called a drop-leaf desk, bureau, escritoire, writing cabinet, or even a ‘secretary’. However, all these words describe an upright cabinet with drawers or doors in the base, below a lockable flap-down writing platform disguising pigeon holes and more small drawers for hiding treasures. This very personal piece of furniture was used to store intimate correspondence, important documents and valuables, like jewellery and money.

The secretaire derives from the Renaissance writing cabinet which was originally a cabinet placed on an open stand or table. In late 17^th century England, incorporating a chest or drawers in the base became fashionable. As a piece of furniture this was ‘economical in space’ and was suited to the intellectual, collecting and writing pursuits of the Enlightenment. As a result, it was considered one of the most important pieces of display furniture and became very popular.

The National Gallery of Victoria has a very fine example of an early cabinet and stand from England dated c. 1685.  On top of five spirally turned legs with bun feet, there is a long frieze drawer with central brass escutcheon, and above this a pair of doors inlaid with floral marquetry of various woods (walnut, elm and olive) and green stained bone. The doors depict vases of spring flowers and perching birds surrounded by foliate cartouches. The marquetry interior is fitted with twelve drawers around a central cupboard which encloses three further small drawers. The quality of the workmanship suggests that it originated from a workshop producing furniture associated with the Restoration court.

Different countries adopted this basic form of furniture and produced their own variations. Dutch secretaires tended to use ornate floral marquetry or oval inlaid reserves. Whereas, in early 18^th century France, Louis XV cabinets were often ‘curvaceous’, topped by marble and incorporated marquetry from imported fashionable woods like amaranth and kingwood or sometimes had painted Vernis Martin panels. Later French, Louis XVI, examples were more rectilinear in shape with simpler veneers and ormolu mounts. 

There are two French secretaires in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. The first is by René Dubois and dates to around 1780 which accounts for its Neoclassical appearance. Standing almost 1.4 metres in height, it has a lower cupboard with two inlaid doors, gilded brass escutcheons and round gilded corner rosettes. Above this is an upper inlaid drop-down panel with similar gilded fittings. Below the marble top, there is a gilded brass frieze of garlanded medallions. Further decoration is seen on the sides of the secretaire. The inlaid marquetry top uses kingwood, tulipwood and satinwood to depict a ‘still life’ arrangement featuring items that would have been seen on a Chinese desk including: a brush pot with brushes, an abacus, scales, dishes, a basket with beads, hanging items and a vase with flowers. More images of brush pots and vases with flowers are seen on the panelled lower doors and on the sides. 

René Dubois was a descendant of a family of French ébenénistes who were active from the 1720s. His father, Jacques, an exacting and talented cabinetmaker with a cosmopolitan clientele, became a juror of the cabinetmakers guild in the 1750s. Jacques specialised in Rococo style furniture (secretaires, gaming tables, clocks, bookcases and corner cabinets) often decorated with Chinese or Japanese lacquer and marquetry.

After his father’s death in 1763, René, who became a master ébéniste when he was eighteen years old, continued the workshop using his father’s mark but producing rigorously Neoclassical furniture. In 1779, he was mentioned in ‘L’Almanach Général es Marchands’ as the Queen’s cabinetmaker.  Like his father, René made lacquered items, but he specialised in furniture featuring veneer wood inlaid with flowers or painted with beige scenes on a green ground framed by bronzes in a geometric pattern.

One of the unusual features of several of René’s secretaires is the inclusion of a display case or upper compartment in the shape of a pagoda. This feature can be seen in his secretaires in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. About 1790, when the market for luxury products was interrupted by the French Revolution, René stopped making furniture and was forced to concentrate on selling it.  After an impressive career, he died in poverty in 1799.

The second French secretaire belonging to the NGV is by Nicolas Petit. Dating from the same period (c. 1780) as the secretaire by Dubois, it is also Neoclassical in style. We see the familiar rectangular shape with two lower door panels, an upper drop-leaf top, gilded bronze ornamentation including the upper frieze, and a marble top. The inlaid decoration, created from tulipwood, kingwood, and satinwood is also influenced by the French interest in China.

The fall-front has a central oval scene which features two workers with a variety of tools. In the background, visible between buildings on either side, is a mountain range and rippling body of water. The workers appear to be involved in making a channel. The oval inset is garlanded by flowers and flanked by two larger figures. Facing us on the right is a lavishly dressed man in a jewelled turban standing in front of a stone arch and holding a sceptre. He looks across the panel to a more simply dressed woman holding a walking stick in front of a house. She appears to be on a journey but has stopped and turned to meet his gaze. The figures are repeated on the lower doors, but this time they are seen inside plant filled rooms and their positions are reversed while they maintain the same eye contact.

Nicolas Petit was one of the leading Parisian ébénistes of his day. The son of a carpenter, he was acknowledged as a master cabinetmaker in 1761with a thriving workshop in the rue du Faubourg Sainte-Antoine. Petit was particularly known for his bureaux, side tables, commodes, secretaires and longcase clock cases. In general his furniture is decorated in marqueterie, but also in laquer. The diversity in decoration also spans a wide range, from lavish flower arrangements to Chinese landscapes to stylized geometrical patterns.

During his later career, Petit concentrated his activities as a marchand-ébéniste. The inventory made after his death included no less than 50 secrétaires à abattant and also listed a number of important aristocratic clients, such as the duc d’Orléans, the duc de Bouillon and the Princesse de Hesse. Today Petit’s work can be admired at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the Wallace Collection in London.

One of the notable features of these cabinets was the clear influence of Asian artistic practices. Known as chinoiserie, and deriving in part from the Orientalist studies of the German Jesuit priest, Athanasius Kircher, this aesthetic entered European art and decoration in the mid-to-late 17^th century. The English cabinet featured at the start of this post belongs to a small number of objects representing some of the earliest known examples of imitations of Asian lacquer produced in England. For a comprehensive discussion of this cabinet see the essay by Carol Cains and Matthew Martin, ‘A cabinet of curiosity: an early English japanned cabinet in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria’, Art Journal 54 at: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/a-cabinet-of-curiosity-an-early-english-japanned-cabinet-in-the-collection-of-the-national-gallery-of-victoria/

Chinoiserie is the European interpretation and imitation of Asian artistic traditions and can be seen in architecture, garden design, the decorative arts and even in literature and the performing arts.  The influx of Chinese and Indian goods brought to Europe and England by the East India Companies increased the influence and interest in this exotic decoration. The popularity of chinoiserie peaked around the middle of the 18^th century and became associated with the exuberant, asymmetrical and ornamental style of Rococo. It is associated with works by François Boucher, Thomas Chippendale and Jean-Baptist Pillement. By the 1760s, chinoiserie became less fashionable as the Neoclassical style gained popularity. However, as can be seen by the secretaires in the NGV collection, Eastern elements were still a common feature in Neoclassical furniture.

Oriental lacquers were particularly popular during the eighteenth century. Initially, the  Marchands-Merciers (dealers) imported chests and screens from Asia to sell, but then decided to break them up to salvage the lacquer panels and utilise them in European furniture. Commodes were embellished in this way, as were bureaux and secretaires. The dealer would supply the lacquer panels to the cabinetmaker, who then had the task of mounting them on pieces of furniture. The lacquer panels were usually held in place with gilt bronzes, which were often very finely chiseled and worked during the rococo period. The areas not ornamented with lacquer were painted with varnish made to imitate it, giving the illusion that the piece of furniture was lacquered all over.

Vernis Martin is a type of japanning or imitation lacquer named after the 18^th century French Martin brothers who were vernisseurs du roi (varnishers to the king).  Oriental lacquer was particularly favoured in France and there were many attempts to imitate it – the most successful resulting from heating oil and copal (tree resin) and then adding Venetian turpentine. This allowed the creation of faux Asian lacquers in many colours, including gold, which were applied to a wide variety of objects from snuff boxes, fans and etuis to furniture and coaches.

As the NGV website reminds us, the contemporary version of the ‘secretaire’ is the laptop computer and password, which keeps our information and correspondence private. While less beautiful, they are certainly more functional and, as most of the manufacture is still done in Asia, obliquely reference ‘chinoiserie’!